The United States launched overnight air strikes against Iran-backed groups in Iraq and Syria, drawing condemnation from both governments Saturday, and promised more to come in retaliation for a deadly attack on US troops.
Damascus and Baghdad joined Tehran in accusing Washington of undermining the stability of the whole region.
The Syrian military demanded on Saturday that Washington withdraw its troops.
‘The occupation of parts of Syrian territory by US forces cannot continue,’ it said.
Iraqi government spokesman Bassem al-Awadi said civilians were among at least 16 people killed in the US strikes in western Iraq.
The Syrian foreign ministry said the strikes served to ‘inflame the conflict in the Middle East in an extremely dangerous way’.
Tehran on Saturday condemned US air strikes on Iraq and Syria as a ‘strategic mistake’ by its arch-foe, without saying whether or not any of them caused any Iranian casualties.
‘Last night’s attack on Syria and Iraq is an adventurous action and another strategic mistake by the US government, which will have no result other than intensifying tensions and instability in the region,’ Iran’s foreign ministry spokesman Nasser Kanani said in a statement.
‘The US military attacks on Iraq, Syria and Yemen merely provide for the goals of the Zionist regime,’ he said, referring to US ally Israel.
The American strikes were ‘a violation of the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Iraq and Syria, of international law and a flagrant violation of the United Nations charter’, Kanani added.
Palestinian group Hamas on Saturday condemned overnight US strikes in Iraq and Syria, saying Washington had poured oil on the fire’ in the Middle East.
The US ‘bears responsibility for the consequences of this brutal aggression against both Iraq and Syria, which pour oil on the fire,’ the group said in a statement issued in English.
‘We confirm that the region will not witness stability or peace except by stopping the Zionist (Israeli) aggression and the crimes of genocide and ethnic cleansing against our people in the Gaza Strip.’
The Syrian army said ‘a number of civilians and soldiers’ were killed in the strikes in eastern Syria. Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor reported strikes killed 23 pro-Iran fighters.
The Iraqi government spokesman said it would call in the US charge d’affaires in Baghdad to deliver a formal protest.
Relations between the two governments have soured in recent months after Washington carried out previous air strikes against Iran-backed groups in Iraq in response to a flurry of attacks on US-led troops since the Gaza war began last October.
The two governments opened talks on the future of the US-led troop presence late last month after repeated demands from prime minister Mohamed Shia al-Sudani for a timetable for their withdrawal.
The United States has some 900 troops in Syria and 2,500 in Iraq as part of an international coalition against the Islamic State group, a jihadist organization that once controlled swathes of both countries.
Its troops in Iraq are deployed at the invitation of Baghdad, but those in Syria are deployed in areas outside the control of the Damascus government.
They operate out of bases in the Kurdish-held northeast or in a small pocket of territory along the borders with Iraq and Jordan.
Analysts said the US strikes were unlikely to stem the flurry of attacks on US targets around the Middle East sparked by US support for Israel in its war on Hamas.
US and coalition troops have been attacked more than 165 times in Iraq, Syria and Jordan since mid-October with weapons including drones, rockets and short-range ballistic missiles.
The soldiers killed Sunday were the first American military deaths from hostile fire in the upsurge of violence.
